Print
Why hike in L.A.? There are as many answers as there are Angelenos who lace up boots and hit trails. Southern California’s mountains and forests can serve as an outdoor gym, a sanctuary from the urban buzz, a spiritual space to heal and reflect, a place to pose and be seen (especially on Instagram), an entry to the natural world of tarantulas and newts, and a place to scale an unthinkably high peak. For the devout, it’s a lifestyle choice that in nonpandemic times brings us closer as a community.
(Tomi Um / For the Times)
Where to start? There are roughly 1 million acres to explore in the L.A. area. The nation’s largest national park in an urban setting, the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, offers 154,000 acres from Hollywood to Point Mugu. Continue east to Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area and Griffith Park, handy urban green spaces that are a freeway off-ramp away, then head east and north to the wilder Angeles National Forest where you can roam 700,000 acres and have your pick of 8,000-foot-plus peaks.